Creepy First Trailer for ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’

The upcoming remake of the 1973 cult film Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was just one of the many films to make its stamp at this year’s Comic-Con. Screen Rant head honcho Vic Holtreman was there for the panel, which featured producer/screenwriter Guillermo del Toro and director Troy Nixey.

The first trailer for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was shown at the panel and it was “pretty damned scary” (to quote Vic). If you weren’t in attendance at Comic-Con and are wondering just how scary the film looks, then fear not as the trailer has just made its way online over at MySpace.

Before we get to the trailer, here’s the official synopsis for the film:

“Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison), a lonely, withdrawn child, has just arrived in Rhode Island to live with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) at the 19th-century mansion they are restoring. While exploring the sprawling estate, the young girl discovers a hidden basement, undisturbed since the strange disappearance of the mansion’s builder a century ago.

When Sally unwittingly lets loose a race of ancient, dark-dwelling creatures who conspire to drag her down into the mysterious house’s bottomless depths, she must convince Alex and Kim that it’s not a fantasy—before the evil lurking in the dark consumes them all.”

Now check out the creepy trailer below:

The original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is not a film I’m overly familiar with, but the trailer for the remake has made it look appealingly scary to the uninitiated. It’s just a teaser and I’m sure we’ll get a full theatrical trailer in the months to come (boasting about the fact that it stars Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes) but this will more than do for the time being.

Now that del Toro is free of The Hobbit (I still can’t help but lament him leaving that project), he can focus his time and energy on the tons of other projects he has on his slate, including Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Slaughterhouse-Five.

Putting del Toro’s name above the title of a movie is always going to garner it more attention than it otherwise might get and I’m sure Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark will be no different.